There are now 15.7 million Americans without jobs. And a big White House conference on jobs is nothing more than a soft distraction from those hard facts.

Now, I’ve never been to a White House summit, so I can’t say exactly what will happen on Thursday. But as a past Davos World Economic Forum participant, I’m pretty familiar with these kinds of VIP schmooze and snoozefests.

And here’s how it will likely play out. A senior White House official — perhaps the president — will give a welcome pep talk to the 130 gathered “summiteers.” He’ll ply them with thanks and stirring patriotic words.

But then he’ll urge them to not waste the day in conference fuzzy talk. Instead, the summiteers should turn words into actions and actions into jobs. After all, it is a “jobs” summit.

And then the summiteers will shuffle off to one of six working groups — where of course they’ll end up wasting the day in conference fuzzy talk.

It’s inevitable. Prepared remarks, banal anecdotes and empty debates are the stuff of these mushy forums. I can count on one hand the number of memorable moments from the dozens of my Davos sessions on technology super-revolutions, entrepreneurial innovation and world peace.

That’s because the VIPs at these things aren’t there to say or do anything unexpected.

Do you think that FedEx CEO Fred Smith and United Steelworkers President Leo Girard will somehow reach agreement that the best way to create jobs is to kill the union-card check?

Do you think that Randi Weingarten, President of the American Federation of Teachers, will suddenly serve up innovative ideas for trade unions to assist small businesses?

It seems unlikely.

And so the jobs summit will fail for the same reason Obamanomics is failing: The White House mistakenly believes economic growth and new jobs are created by society’s stakeholders — business, labor and government — cooperatively working together.

But that’s not the way capitalism works. It doesn’t take a village to create a new job. It takes a businessman trying to make another buck.

Of course, you won’t hear too much of this “greed is good” uber-capitalism stuff at the jobs summit. Not too many of the summiteers would dare. Do you think Comcast CEO Brian Roberts, now in the middle of acquiring NBC Universal, will tell the gathering what he really thinks of government intervention in the economy?

But the White House knows this. And it knows that it really doesn’t matter. This jobs summit isn’t meant to be a “real” jobs summit.

A “real” jobs summit would focus on how American businesses can win globally. A “real” jobs summit would consider why Texas can compete for jobs and California can’t. A “real” jobs summit would look at permanent corporate and payroll tax cuts. And a “real” jobs summit would actually embrace debate, not stifle it.

But in Washington, it’s the form that counts more than the substance. And no doubt, this summit will have plenty of good form. Each of the summit working groups will work their whiteboards and somehow come up with a list of “deliverables” and “next steps.” There will be nice words drafted for White House press releases.

At the end of the day, the President will stand up, thank everyone and close the jobs summit by declaring it a “success”.

And then everyone will file out of the White House and go back to their regular jobs, having done little to nothing on December 3rd to create any new ones.

Comments (5 of 38)

Your ignorance continues to amuse me. You got canned everywhere you went on Wall Street, in a Bull Market no less, and pontificate as if you know something. You don't. Read about Napoleon and his complex.

8:00 pm December 9, 2009

Bobxburnham wrote :

This country's manufacturing businesses crumbled and moved away during the eight years of BUSH.....the net affect has been left in Obama's lap. This country needs to be very clear in focusing on getting the country healthy again..and it needs everyone's help to get those jobs back...This article is mere emotionlal noise....and does nothing to help solve the problem. The attitude demonstrated by this article is exactly what led us into this disaster..

11:48 am December 8, 2009

So You Prefer Bush-onomics? wrote :

Evan, by your logic we should have continued all of the Bush economic policies except the bail out, and just let the economic collapse take it's course without any government intervention or deficit spending. Do you really think that would have been a good idea? What Obama tax hikes are you talking about? The sun-set end of the Bush tax cut package? Before Bush the economy grew well under the Clinton tax hikes and balanced budget. The Bush administration said tax cuts were the cure for everything and you seem to agree. Can you actually believe that the economy was better under the Bush economic approach than it was under Clinton? It is absurd to claim that a return to the Clinton era tax levels will bring ruin to the country.

9:15 am December 4, 2009

thosspot wrote :

Evan, well said. And the comment at 2:17 "How's that Hope and Change workin' for ya?" excellent commentary, too. The only jobs that government can create are government jobs. Otherwise, skip the summit, help small buz. And, that Obama blames this mess on Bush, as if he's suddenly quantum leaped from another dimension, is unbelievable (i'd say shameless, but, well...). He was more a part of creating the problem than Bush.

8:48 pm December 3, 2009

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